perks of being a regular
by Younger Dr. Grey
Summary: retired!Mike Lawson owns a smoothie shop, and Padre!Ginny Baker goes in often enough that he knows her order


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 **written for** day 10 of 30 x 31, **prompt** : your job au. Part of my job's making smoothies. sO HERE'S A SMOOTHIE AU! (just accept it)

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Ginny starts going into the little smoothie shop because Will gets a job there. It's an easy way to say hi to her brother, get what she needs for the day, and keep on moving during her workouts. But her brother's not exactly consistent with actually showing up to his shifts, so most of the time Ginny winds up talking to his co-workers. He's got a manager, Evelyn, who'll walk from the back of the shop to sit with Ginny if they're there at the same time. And the whole place is decked out with baseball stuff because of the owner. He used to play, but when that didn't work out, he opened a smoothie shop and offered coaching advice in between whirls of the blender.

He likes to say that the blenders are just loud enough to drown out the screaming fans outside. Ginny hasn't seen many though.

"Hey, Lawson!" She drums her hands on the counter in front of the register. "You gonna take my order or keep watching your old plays in the back?!"

He cackles from the back of the shop. The set up has the main counter facing the door, the line of blenders and everything behind the counter, and then a back of store area where all the other business stuff happens. Mostly cash counting and hiding out from paying customers since apparently ex-MLB players don't care about looking professional.

Mike heads her way anyway, and his phone's still lit in his hands. "I'm not watching my plays, Baker." He drops the phone beside the register. It's paused on a youtube video, some iPhone video of her last game in Texas.

"You're watching mine." She tugs her headphones the rest of the way down so they wrap around her neck. "Isn't that a little..." Much? A little creepy? A little bit like he cares what she's doing and how she's doing?

He scoffs. "A little what? You should be happy I took the time to find this. You're really starting to blow over." He says it with a straight face, but #Ginnsanity doesn't seem to be going anywhere. People normally leave her alone if she's running, but the simple fact that she's set to play for the Padres in a week has her social media pages flooded with new followers.

She settles forward into her shoulders. Dumb habit, stupid way of closing off her chest and making herself seem a little smaller. "Can I just get a drink please?"

"Sure. Don't know why you're trying to hide though. We're a great team."

"We?" She shouldn't repeat it like that, but she has to.

He points right at her eye. Seriousness all in his. Practically speaks through gritted teeth. "Hey, once a Padre, always a Padre." Then, because he's apparently incapable of not being inappropriate with his customers, he says, "You never forget your first."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm building my own." Smoothie, she means, though he should know her order by this point with how often she comes in.

"Of course you are."

She rolls her eyes again. "Give me banana, kale, some carrot juice-"

"Whoa, wait, we've actually got a new drink we're starting up. Seasonal. Evelyn's writing it in when she gets in today. How about you try that?"

She sort of freezes up. "I drink the same thing every day. I don't really like to switch it up that much."

"Trust me, you'll love it," he says, but that fear in her eyes doesn't go anywhere. "Come on, Baker, when have I ever steered you wrong? You've been coming here since you found out the news. Will told me, you've trusted me since I was but a poster on your wall."

"I'm killing him."

Mike fake-winces. "He'd have to show up for you to kill him."

She adds, "Or for you to fire him."

Mike shrugs. "He does what he can. So, can you just trust me? Please?" He even leans forward with his forearms braced on the register. He's pitched right at her, so they're almost face to face. Just the small space of the counter between them. That and every single part of her self-control.

"Fine." Almost every part. She can try the drink and then toss it a block down if she doesn't like it. She reaches for her wallet, but he walks off without hitting anything into the register. "You didn't-"

"I'll put it on your tab." He grabs a blender and heads for the juicer. He throws on some gloves and starts piling ingredients in. Fresh oranges, fresh carrots, fresh apples. Then he scoops in some frozen bananas, some kale, a scoop of pineapple. Adds what she knows to be the energy boost and about half a scoop of the protein powder. He sets it to blend and glances back her way. "Stop watching me. It's weird."

But she had to watch him to know what he was making, and now that's he making it, it's - "That's my drink."

He clicks his tongue. "It's better than your drink. I added pineapple and fresh apple juice. I wanted to add some pumpkin, but it's seasonal, so check back in if you make it that far."

The customizations don't really matter though. The point that she's trying to make still stands. "That's my drink, Lawson."

He barely blinks at her. "Yeah." He grabs the blender and shakes it a bit to make sure all the parts blend all the way, then sets it on again. "And before you start thinking this is some big romantic gesture to prove to you that I still have a heart, or some nice token of friendship from Evelyn, or - I don't know - some dumb ad campaign set up by your ballbuster of an agent, just stop. Okay. This is a money thing. Ginny Baker's favorite smoothie? Kids are gonna eat that up."

She nods, but the warmth spreads through her chest anyway. The smile builds on her cheeks.

He starts pouring the smoothie into a cup. "I'm serious, Baker. You're gonna make me an even richer man than I already am. Maybe help me remember why I bought into Evelyn's idea for a smoothie shop in the first place." He lids the drink and slides it around the register to her. "Stop giving me that look."

That look meaning misty, affected eyes and a bottom lip that won't quite meet her top one even when she tries to set her jaw. That look meaning the one she's pretty sure she's only shown to maybe two people in her whole lifetime, and that was her ex-boyfriend Trevor and now, Mike.

But he doesn't want to wind up doing this with her. Doesn't want to get roped into the madness any more than he already has. It's not a love declaration; it's a business move. And besides, Ginny doesn't date players, even ex-players who sometimes watch her like they'd come out of early retirement just to catch for her and sit next to her in the dug out.

She forces her jaw closed. Forces the water from her eyes and fakes some semblance of strength to her voice. She can try to be normal. Nonchalant. "Shouldn't I get a cut if my name's on it?"

He breathes easier when she tries. "I'll tell you what, this one's on the house."

She sips so she doesn't say something stupid like, thank you, or do you give all the pretty girls free drinks, or I've had a crush on you since before I even knew what crushes were and every time I come in here now I wonder if maybe you might like me too and if maybe it was fate that Will got this job at your shop and- just other stupid stuff. She takes another sip, actually tastes it, and honest to God, she does not moan on purpose. She just never thought to put pineapple in the smoothie until now.

"You're a smoothie genius," she tells him.

He laughs, but his eyes are hooded over and he licks his lips a little too languidly. "Not the worst thing a woman's ever called me." He blinks though. Blinks and swallows, and his next look doesn't look quite so turned on. He's got too much control over himself. Too much he holds in instead of showing to the world. "Shouldn't you get back out there?"

She nods. "Yeah, I guess I should." The smoothie feels a bit more like a weight then, rather than a gift. "I'll see you around then." She turns for the door.

"We're launching it tomorrow," he says. "If you want to tweet about it, or pop in for a cameo."

She smiles to herself before she glances back at him. "It'll cost you."

He shrugs. "I'm good for it."

Yeah, he is.

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End file.
